Kara-Shoro Field
Kara-Shoro Deposit includes 3 areas of carbonated mineral water distribution — namely Kara-Shoro itself, Kacharaltur, and Konurtebe, and is remarkable primarily for two indicators: it features carbonated water with the highest salt content in Kyrgyzstan (over 40 g/l) and has the most diverse types of mineral waters among those found in the republic; furthermore, the water from this deposit contains the highest concentrations of microelements such as iron, zinc, and barium. Among all the deposits of carbonated mineral waters in Kyrgyzstan, this one is located in the most beautiful area — mountainous, forested, along the banks of a clean and not very turbulent river.
A road leads to the Kara-Shoro deposit from the city of Uzgen through the village of Mirza-Aki, featuring numerous bridges over the Yassy River. The deposit itself is situated at the bottom of the Yassy valley, about a kilometer upstream from the confluence of the Yassy and Kacharaltur rivers. The uppermost area along the valley is the Kara-Shoro section, located at absolute elevations of about 2300 m on both banks of the river.
The carbonated waters of the Kara-Shoro section emerge at two springs at the base of the left slope. In the Kara-Shoro 1 spring — the water is brackish, with an iron taste, odorless, cold, containing about 6 g/l of salts and 1.5—1.7 g/l of carbon dioxide; in Kara-Shoro 2 — located 12 m to the east (upstream) — the mineralization of the water is half as much, which, with the same carbon dioxide content, completely dulls the salty taste and creates the impression of fresh, highly carbonated water; in terms of macrocomponent composition and their ratios, the water from the first spring is sodium bicarbonate-chloride, of intermediate type between "Arzni" and "Essentuki—4," according to GOST 13 273—73 of type XXI, while the second is sodium chloride-bicarbonate, having no analogs in the practice of operating carbonated mineral water deposits, generally of the same type as "Arzni," but less mineralized than the standard. Among the microcomponents, both springs contain lithium, boron, barium, and zinc. The flow rates of the Kara-Shoro springs vary throughout the year, reaching maximums of 0.07 and 0.13 l/s, respectively.
In the area under consideration, 5 exploratory drilling wells have been drilled, one of which, located 10 m from spring 2 and numbered 5, produced a self-flowing discharge with a flow rate of 0.7 l/s of sodium bicarbonate-chloride water with a mineralization of 4 g/l; this water was bottled for industrial use in 1971 at the brewery in the city of Uzgen under the name "Kara-Shoro—5." Together with other wells and springs, it allowed for the calculation of the reserves of therapeutic and therapeutic-table water at the deposit amounting to 1.9 l/s, which significantly exceeds the possibilities and real prospects for its bottling.
